We owe a huge debt to our heroes, war veterans and Holocaust victims. This dictionary is a small tribute to our heroes. While doing my lexicographic research for this project, I came across some very exciting findings, that I would like to share with you. When talking to young people, especially high school and college students, I found out that they are very knowledgeable about Internet, computers, digital, electronic equipment, videogames, etc. and less about WW II. It was one of my many motivations to compile this Encyclopedic Dictionary of the World War Two (WW II) history, operations, events, leaders, core terms, topics, etc. We need to preserve this knowledge and pass it to the next generation.

Fuhrer (German - "leader") - this title Hitler chose for himself as the leader of NSDAP, Nazionalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei, fascist National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany, founded after World War I and taken over by Hitler in 1933. This party adopted the decree outlawing the use of this title "Fuhrer", except for Adolf Hitler, unless it is in compounds, i.e., double or triple words, e.g: rowboat, kilocycle, etc. and in German: Reichsfuhrer, Sturmfuhrer, Obersturmbahnfuhrer etc. The Title "Fuhrer" was the usual way of addressing him as the dictator in Germany and had the same meaning and aura as "His Majesty", "His Highness", "His Excellence", as if it were trademarked and registered only for A.Hitler. The other meaning of "Fuhrer" is a leader exercising tyrannical, totalitarian authority.

Fuhrer - singular or plural? Plural - Duce Mussolini, caudillio Fr. Franco, et al. J.Stalin-" vozhd' vseh narodov", his official title in Russian, the Russian Fuhrer of all nations. Hold on-there was only one nation in Stalinland- the Soviet people, although in Russian, erroneously they called numerous (more than 155) ethnic and minority groups nationalities. It was megalomania and narcissism to call dictator Stalin the Fuhrer of all nations of the world.

That "Grandmama (is) dead" was the coded message, given at 4:45 a.m. on Sept. 1st, 1939 by Reinhardt Heydrich, head of RSHA to the Nazi Germany's army units at the German-Polish border to invade Poland and, thus started World War Two.

That the Western countries (France, Great Britain, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, etc.) were debating before the WW II whom to fight - communism or fascism, while Nazi Germany/Third Reich/ and the USSR were dividing "the spheres of influence" of the world and ready to colonize it.

That SS, Schutzstaffel, means "Safety/Protection squadron", but the real role of SS was extermination, mass murder, elimination, destruction, massacre of millions and millions of lives during WW II. SS, also was called "Blackshirts." Under Himmler's leadership, the SS evolved from Hitler's personal bodyguard units into the infamous terror-striking force that was instrumental in destruction of European Jewry.

That Otto Skorzeny, "the most dangerous man in Europe", Waffen-SS officer running a commando training school, was called "Hitler's ace commando" for his role in rescue mission to free Italian dictator deposed duce Mussolini from the Italian prison on Sept. 12, 1943. Otto Skorzeny gained extreme notoriety due to the fact, that he, as the Waffen-SS officer, used the Nazi Germany's English-speaking troops dressed as U.S. Army soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge. Skorzeny was tried at the Nuremberg military tribunal of war criminals, acquitted, then tried again in 1949 per Denazification Act, escaped from Darmstadt prison to Spain, where he collaborated and worked for Gen. Fr. Franko, was involved in ammunitions business and commando-style training to quasi-SS units in some countries post-WW II.

That SS, Gestapo were recognized and qualified by the Nuremberg Tribunal of war crimes and war criminals as the terrorist organizations.

That the Soviet dictator J. Stalin had his own " Final solution of the Jewish question" in his own country, the USSR, in the 1950s (1951-1953). Stalin was plotting "The Final solution of the Soviet Jewish question" before his death at age 73 on March 5th, 1953. Stalin and his dictatorial machine instigated the so-called "The doctors'/physicians case". Per Stalin, Jews were evil and plotting against him and his government, that is why he ordered extermination of Jews in USSR in the 1950s...

That Kriegie of Kriegy or Kreegy (from German "Krieg"-war, "Kriegsgefangene(r)"- prisoner of war , P.O.W.)- (Slang), used among the U.S. prisoners of war during WW II.
Kriegydom -(Slang) the world of Kriegies (from German , "Kriegsgefangeneschaft"- captivity, imprisonment).

K ration- a highly condensed emergency ration package, provided for the U.S. Army men during the World War Two.

Lend - Lease Act of 1941 - gave the US President the power to lend or lease equipment to any nation, whose defense the US President considered necessary to the defense of the USA during the WW II.

That the USA spent $341 billion during World War Two and $50 billion on Lend - Lease Act helping 38 nations, whose defense was considered necessary to the defense of USA during WW II.

That the Von Ribbentrop/V. Molotov Pact/Hitler Stalin Pact/Nazi Germany/USSR Pact - Non-aggression (which was actually full of aggression and extermination acts) Pact with secret protocols providing in the event of "political and territorial rearrangement" a division of spheres of influence, signed on of Aug. 23, 1939 and acknowledging the USSR's interest, its claim to the share of territorial spoils and control of Eastern Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Bessarabia. In the final division of the spoils, Stalin swapped the Polish provinces of Lublin and Warsaw for Lithuania, which under the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression were to go to Germany. By signing the treaty with the Nazis, Stalin endorsed the Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939…

That Stalag - Stammlager (German) was a network of several Nazi Germany's central prison camps for the other ranks (not officers, RAF or transients), USA POWs - prisoners of war.

That after Nazi Germany's defeat, ten NKVD-run "special concentration camps", were set up in the Soviet Occupation Zone of post-war Germany, former Satalags prisons, or Nazi concentration camps e.g. Sachesenhausen and Buchenwald. These special concentration camps were part of the GULAG, the Chief Directorate/HQ/ of the Soviet prison camps, labor camps and concentration camps. Per estimates 65,000 people died in those Soviet GULAG camps or when transporting them.

Halyard Mission and George Vujnovich -
The U.S. government recognized George Vujnovich with the U.S. Bronze Star Medal for the mission to rescue more than 500 U.S. bomber fliers shot down during World War II over Nazi-occupied Serbia, former Yugoslavia. This was the largest air rescue of Americans behind the enemy lines in any war. George Vujnovich, a 95-year-old New Yorker, Serbian-American, a Pittsburgh native, is credited with leading the Halyard Mission. He was stationed in Bari, Italy during the mission. About 500 U.S. pilots and other airmen were shot down over Serbia in the summer of 1944 while on bombing runs targeting Hitler's oil fields in Romania, according to the U.S. government files, stored in the National Archives.

And many more. You do not want to miss this class.

Below please see a few samples of my entries for the dictionary. I would very much welcome and appreciate your feedback and any suggestions you may have for this dictionary and any lexicographic ideas to improve it. Thank you. Peter Kirchikov.

Allies
The nations, including the U.S.A, U.S.S.R. and Great Britain, that fought the Axis powers in World War II.

Aryan/ Aryan Race
A term used by Hitler to describe Caucasians of Nordic descent of Northern European racial background to preserve the purity of European blood.

Auschwitz -the largest Nazi concentration camp, west of Cracow, Poland, set up in 1940, became an extermination camp and started receiving deportees in March/April 1942 and consisted of several sections. Auschwitz II-Birkenau was designated as the main extermination camp.

Auschwitz lie - assertion, that Holocaust did not happen, exist and more than 6 mln Jews were not exterminated during the WW II and numbers of the Jewish Holocaust victims are exaggerated.

Babiy Yar - a place of mass execution of Jews outside Kiev in Ukraine.
This Holocaust Remembrance Day I decided to reread the "Babiy Yar" poem by the world famous Russian poet Evgheniy Yevtushenko, who autographed his book for me during his 1993 visit to Birmingham. The poem was written in 1961 and one could only imagine how the author survived the Communist tyranny.

Babiy Yar is the place outside Kiev in Ukraine, where 150.000 men, women, children were executed and thrown into the ravine near Kiev. Most of them were Jews. They were exterminated by the Nazi execution squads while Ukraine was occupied during the World War Two. The Soviet authorities did not allow to erect any memorials at the site, Babiy Yar, of mass Nazi atrocities for a long time after the World War Two was over.

Evgheniy Evtushenko has been very courageous to write his poem in the Stalin -dominated dictatorial regime and as you can see from the poem, he felt like being a Jew, although having no Jewish blood in his genealogy. His poem was central to act against Anti-Semitism in the USSR. Fallen heroes are not forgotten, that is why I decided to start my lexicographic compilation of Peter Kirchikov's Encyclopedic Dictionary of the World War Two (WW II) History, operations, events, personalities, terms, etc.

Badge - A cloth I.D. that the Catholic Church required Jews to wear. This was later used during the World War Two by the Nazis in Germany, who required certain groups to wear a badge to identify them. For Jews, it was a yellow Star of David. For other groups it was usually a triangle: brown for Roma, Gypsies, purple for Jehovah's Witnesses, pink for homosexuals, green for criminals, red for political prisoners, blue for emigrants, and black for "asocials."

Barbarossa Operation of invading the USSR and advancing to the East to colonize the East European countries as part of the " Drang Nach Osten" and "Lebensraum", superhumans/Ubermenschen"/Deutsche Uber Allles" Nazi Germany doctrines.

Beer Hall Putsch
The aborted plot attempt by Hitler and his comrades to overthrow the German Weimar government on November 9, 1923. Hitler was thrown into jail and released after eight months.

Execution squads - extermination squads at the Nazi extermination camp, death camps, gas chambers, both in Nazi-occupied countries and in Nazi Germany.

Extermination camp
A location to which Jews and other POWs were deported to be executed by mass assembly-line killing methods. The main camps were: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka, were located in occupied Poland.

Fuhrer (German "leader"), leader of the German Nazis before and during WW II. This title Hitler chose for himself. NSDAP, "NSDAP"/Nazionalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei - fascist National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany, which was founded after World War I and eventually taken over by Hitler in 1933, adopted the decree that forbade use of this word/term/title, except exclusively for Adolf Hitler unless in compounds, i.e word consisting of components that are words, e.g: rowboat, kilocycle, etc. In German: Reichfuhrer, Fuhrerloss, Sturmfuhrer, Obersturmbahnfuhrer etc.. The Title Fuhrer was the usual way of referring to him/addressing as the dignitary/top, chief executive in Germany and had the same meaning and aura as " His Majesty", " His Highness", "His Excellence", as if it were trademarked and registered only for A.Hitler; Leader exercising tyrannical, totalitarian authority.

Fuhrer - singular or plural? Plural, of course. Duce- Mussolini, caudillio Fr. Franco, et al. J.Stalin-" vozhd' vseh narodov", his official title in Russian, the Russian Fuhrer of all nations. Hold on-there was only one nation in Stalinland- the Soviet people, the Soviet nation, although in Russian, erroneously they called numerous (more than 155 ethnic and minority groups nationalities). It was megalomania, narcissism mania, gigantomania, to call dictator Stalin the Fuhrer of all nations of the world. He did not qualify; cult of personality of Stalin, city named after him in 1925, a year after Stalin assumed the power- Stalingrad.

Halyard Mission and George Vujnovich -
The U.S. government recognized George Vujnovich with the U.S. Bronze Star Medal for the mission to rescue more than 500 U.S. bomber fliers shot down during World War II over Nazi-occupied Serbia, former Yugoslavia. This was the largest air rescue of Americans behind the enemy lines in any war. George Vujnovich, a 95-year-old New Yorker, Serbian-American, a Pittsburgh native, is credited with leading the Halyard Mission. He was stationed in Bari, Italy during the mission.

About 500 U.S. pilots and other airmen were shot down over Serbia in the summer of 1944 while on bombing runs targeting Hitler's oil fields in Romania, according to the U.S. government files, stored in the National Archive.

Hitler, Adolph - leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP). After World War I, failed in his November 1923 attempt to forcibly bring Germany under Nationalist control in the "Beer Hall Putsch." Arrested and sentenced to a five-year term, wrote "Mein Kampf," and planned to create a greater Germany. Released after eight months, he reentered politics and gained the chancellorship. He set up a dictatorship, brutally eliminating all his rivals, enemies and opposition. In September 1939, after annexing Austria, the Sudentenland and finally Czechoslovakia, Nazi Germany invaded Poland. It took a lot of time and human lives before the Allies realized, that he should not be trusted, but Hitler had overtaken much of Europe. The USSR agreed to sign The Von Ribbentrop/V. Molotov Pact/Hitler Stalin Pact/Nazi Germany/USSR Pact - non-aggression and assistance Pact with secret protocols providing in the event of " political and territorial rearrangement" a division of spheres of influence signed on of Aug. 23, 1939 and acknowledging the USSR's interest, its claim to the share of territorial spoils and control of Eastern Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Bessarabia. In the final division of the spoils, Stalin swapped the Polish provinces of Lublin and Warsaw for Lithuania, which under the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression were to go to Germany. By signing the treaty with the Nazis, Stalin endorsed the Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939.
Although the war was obviously lost, he encouraged Germans to fight to their deaths, but he committed suicide on April 20, 1945.

Holocaust
Literally, "a completely burned sacrifice." The term denotes destruction, mass murder, carnage, massacre, annihilation, extermination, elimination of six million Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators in Europe and North Africa between the years 1933-1945.

Holocaust denial - assertion that Holocaust did not happen, exist and more than 6 mln Jews were not exterminated during the WW II

Final Solution of the "Jewish Question." - the plan to eliminate 11,000,000 Jews in Europe to solve the "Jewish Question." Beginning in December 1941, Jews were rounded up in occupied German territories and sent to be "resettled" in the East; ultimately, most of the deportees were murdered or gassed.

JewishGhetto/Warsaw Ghetto/Kovno ghetto in Poland - a quarter in a city, where Jews were required to stay and live; a closed, restricted temporary area, settlement, arranged, instituted, mandated by Nazi Germany during the WW II and tightly supervised and controlled by SS ( Schutzstaffel), its paramilitary units- SA, Gestapo, etc.

"The Marshall Plan" - the European recovery program of approximately sixteen West European nations after WW II. The Plan is named after the U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall.

Mein Kampf -(German "My Struggle)" Hitler's autobiography, written in prison after the November 1923 failed "Beer Hall Putsch." With his beliefs and plans for the future of the German Reich. "Aryan" race, per Hitler, to be superior should eliminate inferior and undesirable peoples, with special focus on the Jews.

Night of Long Knives - a night of internal conflict between the SA "Brownshirts" and the SS "Blackshirts," in which the SS actually won and became Hitler's elite unit.

Kriegie of Kriegy or Kreegy (from German "Krieg"-war, "Kriegsgefangene(r)"- prisoner of war , P.O.W.)- (Slang), used among the U.S. prisoners of war during WW II.

Kriegydom -(Slang) the world of Kriegies (from German , "Kriegsgefangeneschaft"- captivity, imprisonment)

K ration - a highly condensed emergency ration package, provided for the U.S. Army men during the World War Two.

Lend Lease Act of 1941 - this Act gave the US President the power to lend or lease any equipment to any nation, whose defense the US President considered necessary to the defense of the USA during the WW II..

The Munich Agreement, also called The Munich Deal, signed on October 1st 1938. Nazi Germany, occupied Sudetenland, an area populated mostly by German-speakers, part of Czechoslovakia after World War I. Hitler annexed it on October 10, 1938. British, French and Italian leaders consented to appease to Hitler's demands backed by military threats.

NSDAP - Fuhrer (German)- "leader.", leader of the German Nazis before and during WW II. This title Hitler chose for himself. NSDAP, "NSDAP"/Nazionalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei - fascist National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany, which was founded after World War I, reconstitutioned in February 1925 and eventually taken over by Hitler in 1933, adopted the decree that forbade use of this word/title, except exclusively for Adolf Hitler unless in compounds, i.e word consisting of components that are words, e.g: rowboat, high school, kilocycle, anthropology, etc. In German: Reichsfuhrer, Fuhrerloss- leaderless, without leader; Sturmfuhrer, Obersturmbahnfuhrer, etc.. The Title Fuhrer was the usual way of referring to him/addressing as the dignitary/top, chief executive in Germany and had the same meaning and aura as " His Majesty", " His Highness", " His Excellence", as if it were trademarked and registered only for A.Hitler; Leader exercising tyrannical, totalitarian authority.

Nuremberg Laws
Two anti-Semitic statutes enacted at the Nazi party national convention at Nuremberg in 1935, that deprived Jews of German citizenship, removed Jews from all spheres of German political, social and economic life, and established definitions of Jewishness, creating severe discrimination against people who even had a Jewish grandparent.

Nuremberg Trials
War Crimes Trials that took place in Nuremberg, Germany in 1946, where some Nazis were tried and sentenced for POW violations, and other crimes against humanity by either imprisonment or death.
The Von Ribbentrop/V. Molotov Pact/Hitler Stalin Pact/Nazi Germany/USSR Pact - Non-aggression and assistance Pact with secret protocols providing in the event of "political and territorial rearrangement" a division of spheres of influence signed on of Aug. 23, 1939 and acknowledging the USSR's interest, its claim to the share of territorial spoils and control of Eastern Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Bessarabia. In the final division of the spoils, Stalin swapped the Polish provinces of Lublin and Warsaw for Lithuania, which under the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression were to go to Germany. By signing the treaty with the Nazis, Stalin endorsed the Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939.

Generalissimo Joseph Stalin - 1. the head of the state, USSR from 1924 till 1953; 2. "the Great Purges", mass exterminations of Russians were closely supervised, ordered and endorsed by Stalin and his associates during the peace time in Government, Party, Army, Police infrastructures, civilian population, etc. ; 3. In 1940-1941- Stalin's distrust of the Soviet military, political intelligence services' reports of Nazi Germany's plans, e.g. " Barbarossa" Operation to invade USSR on 6/22/'1941 resulted in the USSR's loss of approximately thirty million lives, both military and civilians. .; 4. Generalissimo- chairman/chief of the Stavka- High Command of the USSR armed forces during the WW II ; 5. Stalinshchina, Stalinism, Stalin era, never ending in the USSR. 6. De-Stalinization started when Nikita Khrushchev took over.
By signing the treaty with the Nazis, Stalin endorsed the Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939. After the Nazis attacked the U.S.S.R. in June 1941, Stalin joined the Allies to assist them in Hitler's defeat.

Tripartite Pact - an agreement for mutual military and economic assistance between Nazi Germany and Italy, signed on 09/27/1940, thus forming the Axis powers, called Axis ( Rome, Berlin-Tokyo.)

Treaty of Versailles, the peace treaty that ended World War I, placing all the blame on Germany and barring her from developing military industrial complex and limiting significantly her armed forces. Burdened with heavy reparations, loss of land and serious financial difficulties,, the Nazi party blamed for all the nation's woes and difficulties Jews.

"Displaced persons camp"
This phrase "Displaced persons camp" is also used as an abbreviation " DP camp" or " D.P. Camp."A Displaced person is a person made homeless. In the World War II context displaced persons were forced to live in a foreign country, because many of the DP persons, POWs/prisoners of war/, Holocaust victims, survivors of the Nazi concentration and labor camps due to high degree of uncertainty and fear to go back to their countries of origin, e.g., Russians/Soviets, because they could have been executed by the Stalin dictatorial regime, which actually happened to many thousands of Russians, who came home after the war.
The reasons of becoming a displaced person are different: war, ethnic cleansing, genocide, combat operations, POWs/prisoners of war camps, Nazi concentration and labor camps, captivity, Nazi's "Drang Nach Ost" and "Lebensraum" crusade, Anti-Semitism, Jewish refugees, etc. Supposedly there was a system in place to resolve displacement problems and repatriate and help DP persons resettle, acquire a new home country or be admitted to a new adoptive country, although it took a long time, e.g. for some WWII "Displaced persons camps", as late as till 1957. Geography: Displaced persons camps existed for a long time in West Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Darfur region of Sudan, Palestinian DP camps in Jordan, Lebanon, etc. Some of the Displaced persons camps were run by the Allied Armies authorities during WWII.

Shtetl -(Yiddish)- a small town or rural village, that was predominantly Jewish.

Sobibor
An extermination camp in Eastern Poland not far from Lublin, where approximately 250,000 Jews were killed from its opening in May 1942, until it was closed on October 14, 1943, one day after the prisoners revolted and blew up the camp. Most of the escapees were subsequently captured and killed.

Social Darwinism - The Nazi adaptation of Charles Darwin's "survival of the fittest" concept of evolution - in which the belief that "superior humans" will eventually overcome "subhuman" species.

SS - Abbreviation for "Schutzstaffel" (German) - Safety Squadron, also called "Blackshirts." Under Himmler's leadership, the SS evolved from what was intended to be as Hitler's personal bodyguard units into the infamous terror-striking force that essentially was instrumental in destroying European Jewry.
St. Louis -A refugee steamship that departed from Hamburg for Cuba in the spring of 1939. Only 22 of the 1,128 were allowed to disembark. Although eventually the remainder were taken by England, Holland, France and Belgium, their initial rejection by every country, , gave support to Hitler's theory that the nations of the world were unconcerned with the plight of Jewish refugees.

Struma - a boat that left Rumania in late 1941, headed towards Palestine, it was refused entry by the British. Eventually tugged into the Black Sea, it sunk the following February with only one survivor remaining from all the 769 Jewish refugees on board.

Sudentenland - an area populated mostly by German-speakers that became part of Czechoslovakia after World War I. Hitler annexed it on October 10, 1938, after British, French and Italian leaders consented to Hitler's demands backed by military threats.

Swastika - a Nazi symbol, based on an ancient good luck symbol from India, which looked like a cross with equal-sized right arms.

The USSR, The Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, the country that existed from Nov. 1917 till Dec. 1991. Russia is the American English term that is usually referred to the USSR and fifteen independent countries after it disintegrated in Dec. 1991.

The Yalta Conference (Feb. 4-11, 1945), in the Crimea, USSR- summit of the "Big Three" - Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain during WW II, FDR-Franklin Delano Roosevelt, three-term USA President during the WW II and Generalissimo Joseph Stalin, the head of the state, USSR from 1924 till 1953. The Yalta Conference agreement stipulated the four power occupation by the USA, USSR, Great Britain and France of Nazi Germany and its unconditional surrender/capitulation, its post-WW II status, Wehrmacht's disarmament, demilitarization, denazification, the trial of Nazi WWII war criminals, etc.